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1/30/2009
Roosters and being a good neighbor (or not)
This is what America is all about. City and town meetings about everything under the sun. I’ve surely heard it. Leaky toilets that couldn’t possibly have leaked. Messy cottonwoods and mulberry trees. Cars in the front yard, firewood that’s too messy in the backyard, folks who love sidewalks, folks who don’t want to shovel sidewalks. And in Neenah these days, it’s roosters.
The City of Neenah permits chicken coops with up to 4 chickens, but now would allow neither a rooster nor slaughtering the chickens on premises (whew, that’s good!). The issue came up because one resident is being awakened at the crack of dawn – and his chicken-raising neighbor doesn’t want to get rid of the crowing rooster. What a ruckus. Isn’t it sometimes just darned hard to solve what are sometimes pretty tough neighbor problems?
Excerpts below are only a small part of a very long conversation at a committee meeting earlier this week. The transcript was written up by Neenah resident (and 3rd District Council candidate) Steve Erbach as part of his continuing effort to blog about the (pretty detailed) goings-on of the Neenah Council.
Just to keep the players straight, Mr. R owns Jake the noisy rooster, and Mr. and Mrs. C are the next door neighbors that must put up with the cock-a-doodle-doing – and a rooster attack! Oh my.
Mr. C:
We tried to be thoughtful neighbors; tried to be helpful...and, unfortunately, it hasn't turned out that way.
… Our objective is to live in an R1 neighborhood. If you read the R1 ordinance, the objective of the ordinance is #1: low noise, low-traffic, single family...that's all we want. Low noise and we want no animals that are not ours in our yard.
We have been living in peace since the snows came; the rooster is in a garage. My objective is to address the noise problem before Spring comes. Mr. R:
In terms of being a good neighbor, before I began any of my landscaping in my front yard, I came to them. I asked them if they felt it was appropriate. They made no comment. As soon as I began my landscaping project there's been nothing but slander. If you want...I mean I have documented cases. My wife wants to pursue a slander case against [Mrs. C], fighting her. Mrs. C: (Omitted are the reports of name-calling, which aren’t pretty.)
Now, we were concerned … because he has planted and blocked our view of the rest of the block and park. …. Now he also claims that we have told people that we don't like his yard. I admit: I have. But I have had as many people come to me and say, "What is going on in their yard?"
…. [Mr. R] stated to John [another neighbor] the reason why he kept the rooster was to get back at us because we do not like his front yard. You can call John. John called us and told us that.
…. Well, he took one hop at me and then he jumps up, chest height on me with his talons up, ready to scratch my face. It's frightening! So I backed up, and backed up, and looked to see if there was anything that I could get to protect myself from this rooster; because now I'm between my garage, which is right here, and the fence. I didn't have anything, and I'm screaming to [Mr. R] come out and get his chickens. Then I'm screaming, "He's attacking me! Get him outta here!" Still didn't come. He jumps up and does the same thing again at me, so now I'm going behind the garage.
.... Do any of you have any questions? Do any of you want a rooster living next door to you? Oh my. Only in America. Sad for the warring neighbors, but you gotta love it.
Jo Egelhoff, FoxPolitics.net
COMMENTS
Rumor is that there is bailout money available for the Rooster in Congressman Kagen's new plan.
David (Fri Jan 30 07:56:05 2009)
Well, there IS bailout money available for squirrels and pigs. I've heard news reports about acorns and pork, so I guess that's what being discussed.
As to the animals in the neighborhood, I'd have to fault the City of Neenah for allowing animals of husbandry in residential zoning districts. I'm a municipal clerk in a small farming town and WE don't even permit anything but cats and dogs in R-1.
I've had to notify people to remove chickens from their back yard, a goat from a basement and rabbits from garages. We even had a wallaby in an apartment building! I can't believe an incorporated city allows farm animals in it's residential neighborhoods.
Wisconsin does have one animal rule that is totally wrong - Kennel Licenses. These licenses, spelled out in state statutes, allow the keeping of multiple dogs for less money - like a car dealer getting one price for dealer plates, and being able to reuse the plates for many cars. The Kennel License gives people a price break on the dog license to run puppy mills in their basements. We have 2 of them in my town, and you have to see it and smell it to fully understand it.
All that said, from the account of Mr. R and Mr. & Mrs. C I don't think the removal of the chickens is going to end their dispute. Every municipality has a few apes that insist on being the "alpha male." I think is has something to do with the early termination of breast feeding in the infant stage of human growth.
One of the cardinal rules of municipal sanity: "Don't get in the middle of a neighbor feud."
Duke (Fri Jan 30 08:25:11 2009)
Jo,
The most interesting piece of the transcription was spoken by Mr. R, the owner of Jake, the rooster. It throws more light on this situation than all the rest, I think. It came during Mr. R's first presentation, directly after Mr. C spoke:
But I have been a good neighbor. I've never thrown a pop can in their yard. That's not what we're about. I agree the noise issue, and I think the proposal of the ordinance should be a noise issue, not a rooster issue. You're not addressing the problem. You can get rid of a rooster. I can play a rooster tape all day long. You're not addressing the fact that it's a noise issue.
For Mr. and Mrs. C it's been a noise issue all along. Now, apparently, Mr. R agrees with them. Of course, he wanted the city to make a refinement of the noise ordinance, rather than offering to mitigate it himself in any way. The Council is "not addressing the problem," he said. As if it's the Council's fault that his neighbors are at wits' end about the rooster.
On top of that, saying, "I can play a rooster tape all day long," proves the point that the C's made; i.e., that Mr. R is immature. I have to agree with them after hearing him say that in public. It was a rich combination of petulance, disingenuousness, and vindictiveness, worthy of a 13-year-old.
After the Public Services and Safety Committee made its recommendation, Mr. R told Appleton Post-Crescent reporter, Duke Behnke, that Jake would be stuffed and mounted in his house. Mr. R's wife apparently thought better of that idea and posted several comments to Behnke's story on the Post-Crescent site in which she said that, instead, Jake would be sent to live on a farm. I don't know about you, but the R's seem to have gotten some enjoyment out of this imbroglio.
Steve Erbach (Sat Jan 31 06:26:07 2009)
I presume R1 stands for Residential, and not Rural? If it DOES stand for rural, then the C's might be out of luck.
The R's are stupid for having a rooster...they are indeed noisy, and will crow in the middle of the night. (Our bedrooms are on the opposite side from our barn, so we don't hear Mr. Cock crowing.) It'd be better just to have hens, if the Rs indeed live inside city limits.
But before claiming "animals of husbandry" don't belong in a city, let me ask you: Would you rather live next to someone who kept four quiet hens, or next to someone who had a dog the size of a baby elephant, who barked all night long, and crapped all over the sidewalk? How is it that a goat couldn't be kept as a pet, but an untrained Rottweiler who attacks children can be?
When we lived in the city, we experienced both of these unfortunate "dog situations". The Rottweiler went straight for the baby in her stroller!
Give me a cleaner, quieter farm animal any day!
emily matthews (Sat Jan 31 17:51:47 2009)
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